Synology DS1618+ vs DS918+ NAS Comparison

DS1618+ vs DS918+ NAS – Which Synology Should you buy?

If you are thinking about buying a Synology NAS in 2018 and want to leverage your available storage against a robust RAID solution, then chances are you have heard about the Synology DS918+ 4-Bay NAS and the DS1618+ 6-Bay NAS. Arriving with impressive internal and external hardware, as well as excellent applications (1st and 3rd party) with the DSM software on-board, it is hard to work out the REAL difference between these NAS servers. These two NAS have featured on NASCompares previously but never compared – till now. So let us compare the DS1618+ 6-Bay and DS918+ 4-Bay to work out which is the best NAS for you and your data.

DS1618+ vs DS918+ NAS – What can both Synology NAS do?

Both the Synology DS918+ and DS1618+ NAS are part of the flagship plus series and unsurprising heavily support alot of the key features that they have become famous for:

Synology DS918+ 4-Bay NAS Advantages and Disadvantages

Released back in September 2017, the Synology DS918+ still continues to be one of the most popular NAS devices for home and small business. Here are the highlights of our review:

The synology DS918+ Package

DESIGN

With a newly created chassis released with improved ventilation, but still managing to keep compact (even introducing new hardware inside) this is by FAR the best Synology design yet. A welcome improvement to the old DS916+ chassis.

FEATURES

The Synology DS918+ NAS will do it all. If you need a NAS to watch and transcode 4K, Run several VMs, Apple time machine backups, host a plex media server, run an itunes server, run a business from, run surveillance cameras over the network, provide a CRM and CMS system, as well as host several websites – The DS918+ is the NAS server for you

PERFORMANCE

Easily one of the best performing Synology NAS devices available for home and small business users. Also if the default hardware isn’t enough, this is the easiest to upgrade, featuring RAM upgrades and NVMe slots

VALUE

This could possibly be the best NAS of the year. We still have a couple of months before we can truly decide, but for this price and the HUGE amount of software and hardware option in the price, threshold make it irresistible.

DESIGN

The two rear fans, though fully controllable, cannot be completely switched off and this may annoy some people. However any noise they make on their lowest setting is still lower than the HDD you have installed.

FEATURES

Although it can do many of these tasks at once, if you need to do ALL of them at once, you will need a solid Intel Xeon at the least.

PERFORMANCE

Only fault I can find is that there is no 8GB Default version available to buy, as you found with the DS918+ (8GB).

VALUE

It is a shame that there is no 8-Bay option with this hardware – as the DS1817+ is rather disappointing by Comparison

Synology DS1618+ NAS Advantages and Disadvantages

Released in May 2018, this new 6-Bay NAS follows in the foot steps of the DS1517+ and DS1817+. However, it arrives with an improved CPU, DDR4 Memory and at a price point that is far more accessible. Here were our thoughts on this newer synology NAS:

DESIGN

This is the 2nd ever 6-Bay NAS from the guys at Synology. After the Success of the DS3018xs Pentium based NAS for bigger business, this 6-Bay is designed with Home and SMB in mind. The chassis uses the familiar diskstation casing and click-n-lock trays. The design has always been popular with Mac users and it is pretty sensible that they would stick with this form. It is very compact, metal in construction and all trays can be locked as needed. There is excellent cooling on the rear, ventilation in the Synology logo on the sides and the rear panels and its ports are very discreet.

FEATURES

In terms of physical features, the Synology DS1618+ NAS has a lot in common with the DS1817+ and DS1517+. The unit arrives with 4 LAN ports (so link aggregation is supported where needed to effectively quadruple your upload and download speeds to your device), multiple USB for external storage and two expansion ports to add two DX517 NAS expansion devices when needed. Next to these, there is a PCIe slot for adding 10Gbe connectivity, M.2 SSD cache with the m.2 M2D17 and NVMe based M2D18 card and more. At this price point of around £650+, it is a solid hardware purchase.

PERFORMANCE

Arriving with the excellent DSM software from Synology, the sheer number of applications available is incredible. Synology has their own Office application, Google Drive-like one stop app to open EVERYTHING in ‘Drive’, Synology moments and it’s artificial intelligence means you have both facial and landscape recognition available. This is bolstered with a solid 1080p plex media server support, virtual machine management and a whole bunch of collaboration applications in Synology Chat, Synology Calendar, Synology photo and video station support. They are incredibly versatile and the entire user interface is genuinely impressive. Finally, there is the Synology Surveillance application that can support 40 cameras with relative ease.

VALUE

For £650+ without VAT, this device is easily one of the best value 6 Bay NAS you can buy. Lower in price and comparable to the QNAP 6 Bay TVS-673e, TS-653A or TS-653B. You are getting very sophisticated software options and modern robust hardware.

DESIGN

There are several little design features that are missing from other NAS brands like QNAP (HDMI, Audio in/out, quick access and more). This is to be expected, but it is still a bit of a shame to not see a USB Copy Button or LCD for those that want more direct access.

FEATURES

The only real faults are more about the Synology NAS range as a whole than any individual unit. Synology has always wanted to keep the focus on network interactions only where possible and therefore connections that involve attaching smart peripherals or those that involve data being exchanged off-network, are largely absent. Additionally, use of an intel Atom-based CPU will no doubt cool a few users off.

PERFORMANCE

The Atom-based CPU is a little underwhelming when compared with the Celeron J3455 and Pentium seen in other units and this means, though it can support ALL the synology apps, it supports them to a slightly lesser extent than NAS like the DS918+ and DS916+ NAS.

VALUE

Some user still has slight reservations with Intel Atom chips as they are a slightly older version of chip. It is still a fantastic CPU, but as it is not as new as the Celeron chips in the DS918+ and DS718+, and considered a little less efficient.

The maximum number of devices simultaneously connected represents the number of devices that can maintain the connection at the same time. For more information on file processing capabilities, refer to File Handling Response Time.

The file response time refers to the preparation time for adding a 10KByte file to a Synology NAS before other devices can start downloading the file from the NAS. No expansion memory was installed during the test.

The above tests use a non-encrypted shared folder.

The maximum number of devices simultaneously connected represents the number of devices that can maintain the connection at the same time. For more information on file processing capabilities, refer to File Handling Response Time.

The file response time refers to the preparation time for adding a 10KByte file to a Synology NAS before other devices can start downloading the file from the NAS. No expansion memory was installed during the test.

The above tests use a non-encrypted shared folder.

Document Viewer

YES

YES

Download Station

YES

YES

Maximum number of download tasks

80

80

Drive

Maximum number of sync files

1,000,000 / single file response time 437 ms

500,000 / single file response time 362 ms

Maximum number of simultaneous desktop users at the same time

550

450

Note

The Btrfs file system was used for testing.

The maximum number of simultaneous connections represents the number of connections that the system can maintain at the same time when the number of synchronization files reaches a maximum value.

The file response time refers to the preparation time for adding a 10KByte file to a Synology NAS before other devices can start downloading the file from the NAS.

For the model of the expandable memory, the largest capacity memory has been installed during the test.

The above tests use a non-encrypted shared folder.

The Btrfs file system was used for testing.

The maximum number of simultaneous connections represents the number of connections that the system can maintain at the same time when the number of synchronization files reaches a maximum value.

The file response time refers to the preparation time for adding a 10KByte file to a Synology NAS before other devices can start downloading the file from the NAS.

For the model of the expandable memory, the largest capacity memory has been installed during the test.

The above tests use a non-encrypted shared folder.

Free email accounts

5 (If you want to have more e-mail accounts, you must purchase additional authorizations)

5 (If you want to have more e-mail accounts, you must purchase additional authorizations)

Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

We want to keep the free advice on NASCompares FREE for as long as we can. Since this service started back in Jan '18, We have helped hundreds of users every month solve their storage woes, but we can only continue to do this with your support. So please do choose to buy at SPAN, use links to Amazon on the articles when buying to provide advert revenue support or to donate/support the site below.Finally, for free advice about your setup, just leave a message in the comments below here at NASCompares.com and we will get back to you.Need Help?
Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then I can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. Do not worry about your e-mail address being required, it will NOT be used in a mailing list and will NOT be used in any way other than to respond to your enquiry.

Your Name (required)

Your Country (required)

Your Email (required)

Subject

Estimated Budget (if you require Prices where available)

Storage in GB/TB Required (if you are enquiring about NAS, DAS or SAN)

Post navigation

Need Help?

Where possible (and where appropriate) please provide as much information about your requirements, as then we can arrange the best answer and solution to your needs. We will not share your email with any third party companies.

Your Name (required)

Your Country (required)

Your Email (required)

Subject

Estimated Budget (if you require Prices where available)

Storage in GB/TB Required (if you are enquiring about NAS, DAS or SAN)